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Grieving mum faces legal battle after death of Oldbury dad-to-be

A GRIEVING mum, whose partner killed himself at their Oldbury home a month before their baby was born, was devastated to discover his name cannot be entered on the birth certificate.

Rebecca Forbes, who found Kieran Dickenson hanged from the stairwell, faces an expensive legal fight before he is officially recognised as their daughter’s father.

After last Thursday’s inquest in Smethwick, Miss Forbes, aged 27, said she was shocked by the antiquated rule that prevents an unmarried father-to-be being named on a birth certificate if he dies prior to the birth.

Fighting back the tears, she said: “If we had been married, they would have presumed he was the father. It doesn’t seem right in this day and age that the law should be different for unmarried couples.”

While still coming to terms with her 25-year-old partner’s death and looking after six-month-old Skyla Kiera-Rose Dickenson, who was born with club feet, she now faces a complicated legal procedure.

Mr Dickenson’s heartbroken mum, Sharon Casey, said the initial cost of applying to the courts was more than £300 and further fees would be likely.

She added: “We’ve had to face so much, we just want to get things sorted.”

Both women are baffled about why their loved one hanged himself on November 16 2013 as he was “very excited” about the imminent birth of his daughter.

But the inquest heard the couple’s landlord was pressing for outstanding rent, even though Mr Dickenson, a painter and decorator, was renovating the rundown house in St John’s Road.

Mrs Casey, from Kings Norton, said she was close to her son and he had not appeared stressed by the financial problems, as he was optimistic they would soon receive housing benefit.

He and Miss Forbes had gone out for a meal to a Harborne pub the evening before he died. She said he had some drinks and bought a bottle of whisky on the way home.

Miss Forbes, who now lives in Smethwick, told the inquest he was not drunk when she went to bed and was shocked to find him hanged the next morning.

A pathology report revealed he had alcohol and a recreational dosage of cocaine in his blood.

Black Country coroner Robin Balmain concluded Mr Dickenson hanged himself while under the influence of alcohol and cocaine.